Several months ago, Obama referred to what he considers the essence of America: He said, "This sense of mutual responsibility – the idea that I am my brother’s keeper; that I am my sister’s keeper – has always been a part of what makes our country special."

Dear Dr. Hurd: If you don't mind suggestions on articles, have you ever written one on the evils of "enabling"? That is, the phenomenon where a person knows that what someone else is doing is wrong, sometimes morally, but will conduct themselves in a way that allows that person to continue with their bad behavior.

For instance, I've dealt with people who have psychological problems that sometimes move them to lash out or otherwise act in unacceptable manners, and the days following the outbreak they pretend nothing ever happened. Worse yet, they're aided by their victims in that they too pretend nothing ever happened and will even pretend that they like and are still fond of the person, despite the fact they openly detest them out of their sight.

I think commenting on this topic would be both good political commentary and self-help advice. I've been thinking about your article that muses that some of our statist problems today may be due to people trying to silence "internal noise," in that they're trying to deal with their own problems by externalizing them and forcing others to engage in their demanded modes of behavior.

Enabling may be one of the keys to all the evils in this world, as a sub-variant to Ayn Rand's term of "The Sanction of the Victim." If people keep pretending obscene and immoral people are alright and worth dealing with, and actually help them in their bad ways, then they're assisting in promoting destruction in this world, whether it be the destruction of happiness in relationships or people's rights under the government. 

A flat income tax -- say, 15 percent for all Americans -- is a brilliant idea. Right?

No way. The flat tax proposal, in the economy as we know it, evades two very, very important facts. No proposal which evades relevant facts can -- or should -- win.